I have just read this book for the fourth (fifth?) time and I never fail to be astonished at just how good it is. The story line is engaging, the characters live and breath, the language is lucid and the whole will stay with the reader for a long time:

' "Was she someone?" enquires the nurse. Her shoes squeak on the
shiny floor; the doctor's shoes crunch. "I mean, the things she comes
out with............." And the doctor glances at his notes and says that
yes. she does seem to have been someone, evidently she's written
books and newspaper articles and ...........um............been in the Middle
East at one time.......typhoid, malaria......unmarried (one miscarriage,
one child he sees but does not say).............yes, the records to
suggest she was someone, probably.' ( )

This novel begins with Claudia, a fiercely independent woman who is dying. She tells the nurses that she is writing a history of the world.
She recounts her life from childhood, her experiences as a war reporter in Egypt, the many relationships that have shaped her life especially that of her brother , daughter and her one true love.

This is a beautiful read and I loved the main character of Claudia. Winner of the Booker prize in 1987 . ( )

On the surface, Penelope Lively's novels are unassuming and simple: two characters, in some kind of relationship, live. Their lives are expected, rather normal, ordinary. Lively's gift is her ability to plumb these lives and flesh out people who are fascinating and extraordinary.

Moon Tiger is a beautiful novel that follows the life of Claudia Hampton. Like the amateur archaeologist that she is, Claudia reviews her life layer-by-layer as she convalesces in a hospital, assuming death. Like all the women of her generation, she experienced deeply the impacts of World War II -- she was a war correspondent in North Africa -- and she struggled to create a life for herself and her family. Unlike most women, however, Claudia never married and had a child out of wedlock. She maintained an intensely rivalry with her older brother that inspired them both. She challenged the people around her, herself.

In Lively's hands, Claudia comes off complete, realistic: no romance novel heroine, Claudia is both boorish and elegant, strident and calm. Her relationships are three-dimensional and surprising. It is no surprise to me that this novel won the Booker Prize--I was heartbroken at it's end, half in love myself with Claudia. ( )

Claudia Hampton is 76 years old, and dying in hospital. Having spent her career as a journalist and historian, she decides to spend her last days recounting her own history. The telling takes place in her mind, interrupted by nursing care and visits from family members. Born in 1909, Claudia was a bit of a radical and far more independent than most women of that period. She was an intellectual, pursued a career, and refused to marry even when she found herself pregnant. She was attractive, but not interested in the men who pursued her. She was a distant and non-traditional parent, and her relationship with her adult daughter was uncomfortable. Claudia's brother Gordon was the only person she could identify with; in fact, this bond was a bit too strong, and intimidating to others.

Claudia initially seemed cold and aloof, and I was worried we were heading towards the "career woman as bitch" stereotype. Then Penelope Lively took me deep inside Claudia, revealing her inner core, and the private, unforgettable love that changed her life. Suddenly, the other events in Claudia's life were cast in a far different light. This was a woman in extreme emotional pain, made all the worse by her unwillingness to share her feelings with anyone else. She simply could not appear vulnerable, and so kept her young adult experiences to herself for her entire life.

Moon Tiger is a moving, rich character study which also has me considering how to live life in such a way as to have no regrets at the end. ( )

Wow. A wonderful book about a woman called Claudia looking back on her life as death approaches. As she acknowledges, historical events are open to all kinds of interpretation and the events of her life are often presented from different points of view. Or, as Claudia is narrating, we should accept that these different points of view are actually her interpretations of how the other people involved have reacted and felt.

Claudia would appear to be a difficult character on the surface, with the ability to be cruel and unthinking, but she is delightful. She tells the two love stories of her life with sparse language, but this does not stop the emotion coming through.

Other reviews contain much that I would agree with, so I just wanted to write that this book contains one of my favourite quotes. A key character's thoughts on their impending demise: "One resents being axed from the narrative, apart from anything else. I'd have liked to know the outcome." I feel a similar frustration at knowing that I won't be around to see what happens next. ( )